On Thursday 31 October and Friday 1 November, five Year 11 students —Moses Villani (11 Green), Meghan Wobbes (11 Red), Reanna Corrigan (11 Jade), Finn Reardon (11 Gold) and Sarah Boyle (11 Jade) — attended the Seeds of Justice overnight camp in Templestowe.
Seeds of Justice has been running for about 15 years and MLMC has been a key school in contributing to this unique program. It connects our students with the wider student networks from Mercy schools around Victoria and deepens their appreciation of what we call the ‘Mercy Charism’. This means that a richer understanding of the richness of the Mercy ethos is taken beyond school and put into practice in the world. It is the Corporal Works of Mercy in action. More than that, it is connecting with the wider Mercy family and the possibilities for building lifelong relationships are endless.
Seeds of Justice overnight camps involve a major social justice theme. Last week’s theme was poverty and homelessness. Students listened to guest speakers from three organisations which embody Gospel values: McAuley Services, St Vincent de Paul and the Exodus Community from West Heidelberg. Students were especially struck by the personal stories from young youth worker Sarah Taylor, from St Vincent de Paul, as well as the moving testament to the foundational principle Catholic Social Teaching — human dignity — from one of the women who lives in the West Heidelberg community, which is one of Victoria’s most disadvantaged.
MLMC students also received some awareness-raising in their visits to the eye-opening worlds of the Exodus Community (Finn and Sarah), St Mary’s House of Welcome (Moses and Meghan) or Fare Share (Reanna). Students reported coming away with different perspectives on poverty and homelessness, in the sense that popular opinion about the need to avoid eye contact with the poor was questioned; that there are a lot of people out there who really do care about the social problems of our world; that there is an incredible amount of food wastage but that those who salvage some of it for the benefit of the disadvantaged actually have fun while doing so; but also that human dignity is shown by the love put into the interior spaces of places like the House of Welcome, in ways that surprised the students. Students have been spurred into being the “hands of Mercy” — doing faith — in future, as a result of the two-day experience.
Each of them are commended for being the delightful ambassadors of the College at Seeds of Justice. We look forward to putting into practice some of our awareness-building in the next 12 months.
